Now the summer holiday season is almost over, are the fat-cat bankers, traders and corporate financiers looking forward to returning to their office desks? Well, yes and no. The good news during August was that equity markets regained some composure and the prices of many financial services shares bounced back by around 20%.

The less encouraging news for the returning bankers and traders is that very little has changed. Al-Quaeda is dormant rather than dead. Corporate governance in Switzerland and Germany barely exists and in the US, once considered to be whiter than white, embarrassing new revelations from big companies are as certain as the reappearance of Father Christmas in December. Consumers have never been so deeply in debt.